Except on the stage he lost over five minutes to most of the other contenders.

henochJoined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1600

7/15/18 3:58 PM

@Brian, yeah after all he has been through it was nice to see him back on top.

Sparky,
Whos TJ?.
You gotta be joking, right?.

SparkyJoined: 08 Dec 2003
Posts: 16861
Location: Portland, OR

7/15/18 4:19 PM

I forgot about Avermaet being on same team for some reason. Not watching stage by stage, so bits and pieces rattling around in my brain not the most efficient.

Or ignore all that txt, and yes I am kidding. ;)

henochJoined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1600

7/15/18 4:39 PM

I dont know why people still keep on talking up TJ as some kind of GC contender, yes he finished 5th at the Tour, but that is a long way in the rear view mirror he hasn't done anything to warrant any such talk since oh, maybe 2013.....
That's a loooong time ago.
He will be lucky to even finish the Tour.
Ok TJ talk over and out.

Brian NystromJoined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 4189
Location: Nashua, NH

7/15/18 6:36 PM

Sadly, it seems that you're correct. Even TJ admitted recently that he's not a Grand Tour contender and is better suited to week-long races. It's a shame, but it's reality.

With no GC contender on the team, BMC will be all about stage wins now. That could make things interesting. This has been the craziest Tour in recent memory and hopefully some of the remaining GC riders will be able to keep this from becoming another Team Sky snooze fest.

Last edited by Brian Nystrom on 7/16/18 5:27 AM; edited 1 time in total

daddy-oJoined: 12 Apr 2004
Posts: 3235
Location: Springfield

7/15/18 11:04 PM

I wonder if those three off the front shoveled extra coal when they saw Sagan missed their move. Froome finally learned to keep his nose in the wind on a technical stage. When I heard Taylor Phinney repeat his team's line to support Uran I knew there was no chicken dinner for me today.

Brian NystromJoined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 4189
Location: Nashua, NH

7/16/18 5:40 AM

I would be willing to bet that the reason the winning move was made in the first place was that they realized that Sagan was back in the bunch and even with his amazing skills, passing on the pave was going to be nearly impossible. Sagan said as much after the race; he was out of position and missed the move.

Although I'm an admitted Sagan fanboy, I'm really glad that the stage ended as it did.

Petey will get plenty of chances to dust everyone going forward. It will be interesting to see if Gaviria makes the effort to gain points in the mountains or not. If not, the Green Jersey competition is nearly a done deal. If he hadn't head-butted Greipel, I think they would have let the shouldering slide, since it wasn't anything unusual in a sprint. He threw away a bunch of points because he couldn't control his temper; perhaps it will be a lesson learned.

Brian NystromJoined: 26 Jan 2004
Posts: 4189
Location: Nashua, NH

7/16/18 5:41 AM

I would be willing to bet that the reason the winning move was made in the first place was that they realized that Sagan was back in the bunch and even with his amazing skills, passing on the pave was going to be nearly impossible. Sagan said as much after the race; he was out of position and missed the move.

Although I'm an admitted Sagan fanboy, I'm really glad that the stage ended as it did.

Petey will get plenty of chances to dust everyone going forward. It will be interesting to see if Gaviria makes the effort to gain points in the mountains or not. If not, the Green Jersey competition is nearly a done deal. If he hadn't head-butted Greipel in Stage 8, I think they would have let the shouldering slide, since it wasn't anything unusual in a sprint. He threw away a bunch of points because he couldn't control his temper; perhaps it will be a hard lesson learned.

henochJoined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1600

7/16/18 8:19 AM

Those were 3 super strong guys, so while none of them are on the level of Pete, they are a crazy strong trio, once they got the smallest of gaps they weren't coming back, You have 2 previous winners of P-R and the Belgium champ. Pete or no Pete, they weren't playing games either they all rode 100% until the last 500 meters.
Also the teams came into play, we all know how strong QS is, but yesterday as a team Trek was up to the test as well, as soon as Pete made the move to bridge he had Styuven glued to his rear wheel, and I believe a QS or two as well
Basically that is precisely how Trek wrote the script when they signed John 18 months ago.

dan emeryJoined: 11 Jan 2004
Posts: 6075
Location: Maine

7/16/18 9:01 AM

cool stage

There probably aren't too many times you will see the Yellow Jersey blasting off the front on the cobbles...

Very cool Pino! It looks like an epic ride. How long did it take? It would probably take me 2-3 days. ;-)

I was somewhat confused by Sagan's tactics. Even if he didn't get any help, what did he have to lose by trying to catch the break? Worst case, he'd drop back to the group. It seemed obvious that nobody would go with him to help, since the riders in the break weren't GC contenders, so there was nothing for the other teams to defend. Perhaps he just figured it was better to save his energy for the mountain stages that are coming. Perhaps it will pay dividends in the long run.

It felt epic. Took me 10 hours leading me to around 7000th place out of 13000 starters. The second climb (plateau des Glieres) is very steep with riders in my vicinity tumbling over, but it will look much easier tomorrow.
We had the chance of great cycling weather, but still the last climb felt awful.

henochJoined: 12 Jan 2004
Posts: 1600

7/16/18 12:22 PM

Are you talking about his chase? he had 1 Trek rider and 2 QS riders sitting on his wheel, if he did a full on effort to bridge up they would have just sprinted past him at the end.